When It Clicked: CC Sabathia

One of the regular features from our dearly departed MLB Sunday page, "When It Clicked," today moves to its new online home, where it will appear each Friday during the baseball season.

Here on "When It Clicked" we're always happy when a player uses the opportunity of speaking about his own development to send a shout-out to an influential person from his past. That's exactly what New York Yankees left-hander CC Sabathia did, crediting Abe Hobbs, his high school coach in Vallejo, Calif., for instilling in him a passion for baseball.

"It was going from junior high to high school. [Hobbs] just worked our butts off, made us actually work at the game and understand how to play the game. Just from being around him and learning stuff from him, [that] was when I started taking the game seriously.

"I was pretty good, but [baseball] was just something I did. I just liked to play. But after getting with him and seeing his passion for the game and [his way of] teaching it to us, that definitely made me respect it.

"In ninth, or 10th grade, one of my high school teammates got drafted, and I started thinking, 'Maybe I have a chance to do something.' I was pretty good. But [Hobbs] made me better."

"Just the love of the game and knowing what it takes to get ready to play. I still talk to him a lot, and we have conversations about everything. I can definitely say it's one of the reasons why i'm here."